Opening Lead for Intermediates 24 by Andy Hung

Opening Leads. They're the card that sets the tempo of all bridge hands, and it is the first strike that the defense gets. Sometimes declarer's contract is rock solid and the lead doesn't matter, or sometimes the contract is too high and declarer is destined to fail.

What is important is that we must make every effort to choose the best opening lead that will give us the best chance to defeat the contract.

In this series, we will look at how we should be leading when we hold length in the opponent's trump suit. Are you ready?

Question 1

Your Hand
♠ 9 6 5 2
♥ 3
♦ A K Q J 9
♣ J 8 7

Q: 1 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♠
2♦	2♠	Pass	4♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

You are on lead against 4♠ after overcalling 2♦. What do you lead?

A: ♦A.

It may seem very attractive to lead your singleton Heart, but you should take advantage of your trump length. Repeated Diamond plays may force the opponents to ruff (and hence reducing their trump length), in which you may soon find yourself to be in control of the trumps!

This is what we call a forcing defense - and is usually adopted when you hold trump length in the opponent's suit. By forcing the opponents to ruff, reducing their trump length may give you control of the hand.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 2

Your Hand
♠ 7
♥ Q 10 8 3
♦ K 8 7 4 2
♣ J 10 9

Q: 2 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♥
Pass	1♠	Pass	1NT
Pass	4♥	Pass	Pass
Pass

You are on lead against 4♥. What do you lead?

A: ♦4.

Firstly, don't lead a Spade. It is likely that you will have two natural trump winners, so there's no need to try and set up a ruff.

So our choices are down to a Diamond or a Club. A Club is the safe option, but with trump length, we should try to go on the aggression and adopt a forcing defense. Even if a Club is right, we don't have many Clubs to play to force declarer to waste his trumps. Our Diamond length however can do that with ease.

Therefore, our best hope here is to lead a Diamond and hope that we can keep on reducing declarer's trumps.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 3

Your Hand
♠ 7 4 3 2
♥ J 8 7 3 2
♦ 8
♣ Q 10 3

Q: 3 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	1♣	Pass	1♠
Pass	2♠	Pass	4♠
Pass	Pass	Pass

You are on lead against 4♠. What do you lead?

A: ♦8.

Our Heart suit is quite terrible here and it is unlikely we will get the Hearts going to reduce declarer's trumps. In fact, the opponents seem to be in a 4-4 fit so forcing declarer to ruff won't hinder him at all.

The weakness of our hand is a positive indicator for a singleton lead. It means that partner has the majority of the strength - therefore, it makes it more attractive to lead our singleton as the entries are in partner's hand.

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 4

Your Hand
♠ Q 9 6
♥ 10 6 4 3
♦ Q 8 7 5
♣ K 2

Q: 4 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1NT
Pass	2♣	Pass	2♥
Pass	4♥	Pass	Pass
Pass

The opponents get to 4♥ after a Simple Stayman auction. What do you lead?

A: ♥3.

There's no attractive lead here. We may have the trump length, but our hand consists of scattered honors in the side suits. It is a risk to lead any of the side suits, so we might as well try to draw trumps for declarer!

Your result so far:

Open Question

Question 5

Your Hand
♠ A 7 4 2
♥ A K 8 5 4
♦ 7 3
♣ 8 5

Q: 5 - You are South.

South	West	North	East
-	-	-	1♣
1♥	Double	2♥	2♠
Pass	4♠	Pass	Pass
Pass

You are on lead against 4♠ after overcalling 1♥ and West showing four Spades via the negative double. What do you lead?

A: ♥A.

We have an easy lead here. With four-card length in Spades as well as control (the ♠A) in that suit, this gives us the green light to adopt a forcing defense here.

Luckily, we have a good Heart suit to start the attack there. We hope to take two Hearts and play a third round of Hearts to initiate the trump reduction in the opponent's hand(s).

Your result so far:

Open Question

Overall Results

Your results: out of Average:

What next? You may enjoy playing our prepared hands series.
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